Architect Cornelia Oberlander gets her due. What makes [Cornelia Oberlander’s] work so exceptional is her ability to seamlessly fuse landscape and architecture—achieving a kind of gesamtkunstwerk (or synthesis of the arts)—especially exemplified in her collaborations with Arthur Erickson. And yet her talent is only now being fully recognized at home and abroad. Macleans, April 15, 2014

Victoria

Robert Amos: Calligraphy, paint inspire new art forms. Calligrapher Georgia Angelopoulos and painter Miles Lowry met me at Lowry’s garden studio in Fairfield. There, with music, tea and his gregarious pussycat, we looked over 20 pieces they have created together for a show at Eclectic Gallery. Times Colonist, April 11, 2014

Calgary

Public art builder argues against funding cap. As city officials review Calgary’s public art program and consider potential reforms following heated backlash over the big blue ring, Ken Heinbecker, a vice-president of Heavy Industries, said he doesn’t see any need for big changes. (Calgary-based Heavy Industries engineers and builds public art pieces that have been installed in Canada and internationally). Heinbecker said critics of public art tend not to fully appreciate the benefits it brings to the city — the civic pride, the sense of place that pieces can evoke. He said the fury that naysayers raised over the blue ring on 96 Avenue N.E. — with gripes over the $470,000 price tag and claims that it’s grossly unattractive — was something he hadn’t encountered before. Calgary Herald, April 13, 2014

Toronto

Six Canadian Artists Up for $50K Aimia | AGO Photo Prize. Six Canadians have been longlisted for the Aimia | AGO Photography Prize, a Toronto-based $50,000 award voted on by the public. In total, 23 artists from six continents are represented in the longlist.The six Canadians longlisted are Raymond Boisjoly, Robyn Cumming, Chris Curreri, David Hartt, Jean-Paul Kelly, and Owen Kydd. (Curreri and Kelly were also longlisted this week for the Sobey Art Award.). Canadian Art, April 16, 2014

Robert Bateman paints a fond memory of the ROM. Robert Bateman recalls going behind the scenes at museum as a Junior Field Naturalist, hanging out with the ornithology experts and his favourite passenger pigeon diorama. Toronto Star, April 11, 2014

Reopening Of Paris’s Picasso Museum Delayed Again The Musée Picasso has been closed for renovations for more than four years. “The building site is all but ready, the lights for the art works are in place and except for a few minor technical items, everything is done,” according to the museum’s spokesperson, who gave neither an explanation for the delay nor a revised opening date. New York Times, April 16, 2014

Elena Filipovic to Helm Kunsthalle Basel American-born art historian and curator Elena Filipovic has been named director of Kunsthalle Basel. She succeeds Adam Szymczyk, who in November was named artistic director of Documenta 14, which will take place in summer 2017. Filipovic is currently senior curator of WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels. She will take up her new post November 1. Art in America, April 16, 2014

Herculaneum

Herculaneum gains ground Herculaneum, Pompeii’s “little sister”, will soon be given some much needed breathing space thanks to funds from the EU and the Herculaneum Conservation Project, a collaboration between the US-based Packard Humanities Institute and the regional heritage authority. The Art Newspaper, April 16, 2014

A Statistical Analysis Of What Bob Ross Painted On TV “I used an algorithm to divide the entire set of 403 paintings from “The Joy of Painting” into clusters of similar paintings. I wanted to know whether it was possible to identify the 10 basic paintings featured on the PBS series. To do this, I ran a k-means clustering analysis of the paintings.3 The results were mixed.” Five ThirtyEight, April 15, 2014